The public is invited to an Interactive Open House to celebrate the DAMS Technology Education/STEM remodeling project ~ Thursday, July 23, 4:30-6:00 pm, in the 5/6 library. After an overview of the project, there will be interactive demonstrations and activities.

Learn more about STEM!

Spend some time “playing” with STEM technologies and tools, such as 3D printing, robotics, circuits, and coding!

Please join us to learn more about the school district’s proposed budget for 2015-16.
The annual meeting and budget hearing will be held in the DeForest Area Public Library’s Community Room, 203 Library Street, DeForest.

Three DeForest Area School District students have been selected to perform in the Wisconsin School Music Association’s (WSMA) 2015 State Honors Band this year. Selected to the Middle School Honors Band was Sarah Stouffer-Lerch, an 8th grade trumpet student, and Jacob Chambers, an 8th grade percussion student.

Rosie Hess, an 11th grade student at DeForest Area High School, who plays the Clarinet, was selected to perform in the High School Honors Band. This will be Rosie’s second year performing with the group.

The Middle & High School State Honors Music Project is designed to provide musically talented students with the opportunity to rehearse and perform with the nation’s finest conductors in a professional and highly disciplined setting. Students are challenged to perform at their musical best throughout the rehearsal period, which culminates with an inspired performance, celebrating the reach of music education statewide.

“This is more than a summer camp or an opportunity to perform. It is the opportunity for highly talented students to come together and be challenged in a way that is only possible in this intensive program. The high school students participate in a camp in June, which is one of the most rewarding musical experiences of their lifetime. Middle school students get music in advance to practice. Both groups perform for the WMEA State Music Educators Convention in October right here in Madison,” said Brandon Bautz, DeForest Area High School Director of Bands.

Auditions were held in seven sites across the state this past February & March with more than 1,500 students auditioning.

Students selected to participate in the WSMA High School State Honors Music Project will meet for the first time at an intensive four-day summer camp at UW-Green Bay. The summer camp is a unique and essential component to the High School Honors Project experience as it is the first opportunity the selected students have to see their music, meet the conductor, and rehearse as a newly formed ensemble. All Honors students reconvene in Madison in late October to perform at the annual Wisconsin State Music Conference.

The WSMA Middle School State Honors participants meet for the first time in October with a rehearsal and performance. The Honors concerts celebrate the remarkable achievements of Wisconsin’s finest young musicians and are open to the public.

According to Bautz, students and their families pay to participate in the high school camp. Those interested in making a financial contribution to help these talented musicians at DeForest participate in this honor, contact Mr. Bautz at 842-6822 or bbautz@deforestschools.org.

A new summer reading program will provide the opportunity for all elementary school students to read this summer. During the last week of school, each student in the elementary schools have chosen 6-8 brand new books to keep and read with their families during the summer months.

The idea for the program came from reading specialist Kathy Williams. According to Williams, “Research shows that simply giving kids books to read often can have (does) a similar positive impact (just as much) as does summer school in reducing the “summer (academic) slide.”

According to the authors of a report from the National Summer Learning Association: “It’s common for teachers to spend at least a month re-teaching material that students have forgotten over the summer. That month of re-teaching eliminates a month that could have been spent on teaching new information and skills.”

The report’s authors further note that family income plays a significant role in determining the magnitude of this summer slide.

So, Williams and the other school’s reading specialists, Sharon Ganster and Sherri Rogalla, worked with teachers and parent-teacher organizations during the school year to raise enough funds to purchase several books for every elementary school child.

Students at YES couldn’t wait to begin reading their summer books. Several chose to read their new books during a recent indoor recess.

On Friday, June 5, Eagle Point Elementary School staff gave every student 8 brand new books to take home and read over the summer! There were lots of cheers as Sharon Ganster told the students they would be able to pick out their own books and keep them forever. Our generous PTO designed and purchased bags for the students to carry their books home in. The students were so excited about their books that many of them sat down and started reading right away.

Each year students in Jodi Acker’s 6th grade math class on the Badger Team participate in a “Pi” memorization contest. The competition concludes a geometry unit where students learn about formulas, especially those that deal with circles. According to Acker, “The number Pi is the ratio between the circumference of a circle and its diameter. It’s approximately equal to 3.14159265, although the digits go on forever.”

Acker gives her students a chance to memorize as many digits of “Pi” as possible. Each math hour had a preliminary contest and then finals on Friday, June 5. Students earned prizes for reciting for memory as many digits of Pi as possible.

Ten participated in the final competition. “It was exciting to see how many numbers the students could memorize,” said Acker. Nora Langdon and Geri Otto tied for first place memorizing 240 digits of Pi. In third place was Hayden Rauls with 190, in fourth place was Carleen Snow with 170 digits, fifth place was Rachel Gammon with 144 digits, in sixth place was Jay Franz with 140 digits, seventh place was Jessica Camarato with 138digits, eighth place was Ferris Wolf with 120 digits, ninth place was Dayshia Wilson with 100 digits, and in tenth place, Aysha Romeis with 96 digits. Congratulations to all the contestants for working hard on memorizing all those numbers.

This spring, some DAMS 7th graders learned firsthand about resiliency from older adults in the community. Ten adults visited students in Laura Kruschek’s Digital Communications classroom on two separate occasions in April. They were interviewed by students about a time in their lives and a time in their lives when they had to be resilient. Students created a presentation with an electronic timeline for each participant.

Amber Fabian, Barb Mathiot, Mandy Fitzgerald, & Leah Doucette

The older adults joined the students for a treat and enjoyable conversation. Students presented their finished projects to the older adults on Wednesday, April 29.

At the end of the presentations, the older adults shared information about their experience. One adult shared her thoughts, “This is very awesome and I truly enjoyed meeting you. Continue your education. Life is good, whatever you make it.”

This project was facilitated by Digital Communications teacher Laura Kruschek with help from RSVP of Dane County and the DeForest Area School District’s LINK-ages Committee.

This spring students in the DeForest Area High School Leo Club hosted a staff vs. student softball game, raising $400 for the American Cancer Society. The Leo Club is a high school affiliate to the DeForest Lions Club, a local service organization.

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